Credit Sesame Reviews

This evening I spoke with Jamey, a service rep. When he was unable to refund my money, I asked that my call be escalated in an attempt to recoup my funds. After a lengthy wait, Jamey said that he was informed that in my circumstances my call could not be escalated to a supervisor. I’m assuming because the account was so small. My only option was to close the account and they would waive the $25 service fee. They would not refund my money. They would not send a statement showing all transactions on the account. They never offered to prove that they sent an email regarding the fees.

I’m sure that mine is one of many small accounts that were pilfered by an unscrupulous company. Do yourself a favor and don’t buy into any promotions that they might offer. You may find yourself in the negative. In tough times, they have proven themselves to be uncaring and overall unprofessional. Use their free credit services, or better yet, go to Freecreditreport.com annually and stay up on your information that way. I would never recommend them to anyone at any time in their lives. Put your money under your mattress. It’s safer there.

I am also a little miffed with Discover card as my account was frozen for the last few days, by me, and they allowed this charge to go through. Lots of shadiness going on here. I’ve since reached out to both companies and almost 24 hours later have not received even a response or acknowledgment that voice had been heard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to throw Discover under the bus as I know how pending items seem to work, but the fact that Credit Sesame could not even give me an auto reply is very troubling. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! I am now fighting with both companies to retrieve my money from this fraud.

Customer Service Agents were horrible and disrespectful and unknowledgeable. NO help was given. I felt stuck doing business with these crooks. Do not do business with this scam company. Finally, after I had to make numerous phone calls to Sesame cash and the other company and putting in the leg work to resolve the issue Sesame Cash finally closed the account. I will never do business with them again nor would I ever recommend them to anyone. Please do business with a real bank.

How are you calling yourself a company with no contact number with a live agent? When you sign up you give your contact information and yet somehow they have not texted or e-mailed me or even called with a warning of new fees being implemented. The claims of credit building is false. They send you credit card matches and then when you apply, you get denied and your credit score drops. When you click on dispute help you can't get any if you aren't PAYING for premium. These are unacceptable business practices. This "company" will cause you unnecessary stress and loss. I want my funds returned and my account closed. Company Statement: "Credit Sesame is 100% free. There are no trial periods, catches, gimmicks or fine print, and we'll never ask for your credit card information or bill you by surprise."

I thought the Credit Sesame Cash card was the perfect card for me in order to get me back up and improve my credit score because it was affordable (free to apply and no annual or monthly fees), it didn't require good credit score in order to get accepted, and, most importantly, help build your credit by providing you with the credit line you need in order to use it (which helps build your credit history), pay it back on time (which helps build your trustworthiness and financial responsibility), slowly increase your credit limit (which increases your credit score), and last but not least grow your credit age by keeping your credit account OPEN. Unfortunately, last week (5/19/23), after growing my credit for almost two years, Credit Sesame sent me this email:

"As a valued Sesame Cash account holder, we want to give you advance notice of new account fees* effective June 15, 2023 or after.

The new fee structure is designed to ensure active users can still enjoy free banking services. Account holders who make a direct deposit of at least $500 or spend more than $1,000 during each monthly billing period continue to benefit from no monthly or inactivity fees.

Account holders making a direct deposit under $500 or spending under $1,000 during each monthly billing period are charged a monthly fee of $9.99.

Account holders with no money movement in or out of their accounts pay the monthly fee plus $3.00 for every 30 days of inactivity.

Thank you for being a loyal supporter of Sesame Cash. We look forward to sharing new features and benefits with you in the near future.

By continuing to utilize the services, you agree to the Sesame Cash Terms of Service and Sesame Cash Cardholder Agreement. If you do not wish to accept, you may choose to close your account."

Was that a bait and switch move? Bait me with free credit builder accounts and then, a few years later, switch it with the same accounts but with monthly fees and other rules to get your money. And if I don't accept, I should close my account, which holds my whole credit history since it's the only credit card I have. Consequently, You know what happens when you close your credit card account? Your credit score goes way down and you need to start your credit history all over again from scratch. This company doesn't care about your credit score and just wants to make extra money. Now it is going to take me two years to get back where left at. You know how hard it is to buy a home? To get a mortgage? To raise your credit to excellent in order to actually afford the mortgage?

They could have at least applied the new rule to NEW customers instead of the current ones since we didn't agree to monthly fees (I would have chosen another credit builder if that was the case). Unfortunately, due to Credit Sesame's greed and immoral business tactics, I need to close my account and toss my two-year credit history in the trash with it. That is how Credit Sesame treats their valued customers. Valued indeed.

On May 26, 2023: When I call the phone number 1-877-751-1859, choose option 2 for my account, and choose option 4 for requesting a new Sesame Cash debit card, I was able to reach a Credit Sesame representative to close my Sesame Cash account. This is another scammy practice pulled by Credit Sesame because if I call the same phone number above, choose option 2 for my account, and then choose option 5 for account closure, the virtual phone assistance will literally tell me to go to the support page to submit an account closure form, and if I fill out that account closure form on their website, they would never respond and my Sesame Cash account would never be closed, and I would be charged $14 monthly fee for keeping the Sesame Cash account open.

Anyways, for anyone has issues reaching Credit Sesame representatives to close the Sesame Cash account, make sure to call the phone number 1-877-751-1859, choose option 2 for your account, and choose option 4 for requesting a new Sesame Cash debit card to reach a Credit Sesame representative to close your Cash account. If you choose option 5 for account closure, the virtual phone assistance will not let you reach a representative and keeps telling you to fill out an account closure form on their support website, which they will never respond and will keep your Cash account open, and they will force you to pay the $14 monthly fee for keeping the Cash account open.

4. Credit Bureau mortgage processing. I don't want mortgage through them (delete and deactivate my account if possible).

Not refreshed. Be careful out there especially these you never know with anyone especially when comes to privacies related (we all need to respect each other privacies and knows from right from wrong and so on) if knows what I'm saying. Very scared and nervous and worried about this especially with people these days.

A few hours later I get a message from PayPal that says a $19.95 transaction was not authorized due to insufficient funds in the account. This was a second charge. The first had already been approved because there was enough money in my PayPal account to cover it. I contacted Credit Sesame about all these unauthorized charges and was given the run around. I got on their FaceBook page and let all their followers know what happened. An hour later I get a call from Credit Sesame. The person who called me was named Tony. Tony starts out lying to me. He immediately tells me it's impossible for Credit Sesame to have charged me $19.95 because they don't have a $19.95 plan. The most expensive one is $15.95. I take a screen shot of my account page that shows 3 plans. 1 for $9.95 1 for $15.95 and 1 for $19.95.

I inform Tony that Credit Sesame does have a $19.95 plan and asked him for an e-mail address to send the screen shot to him verifying this. He finally admits that Credit Sesame does have a $19.95 plan. Then he tells me it's impossible for Credit Sesame to have made a $25 withdrawal from my bank account because my bank account wasn't linked to anything. I took a screen shot of my bank account that showed the $25 withdrawal from Credit Sesame and sent it to him VIA e-mail while I was on the phone with him. Then he told me that the transaction would not post that it would remain pending for 3 days then go back to my available balance. The transaction did post while I had him on the phone so I sent him a screen shot of it posting. My bank charged me an overdraft fee of $37 for this transaction because I only has $21 in the account. I informed Tony of this.

Now I have been charged $15 for the initial account, $25 taken out of my checking account that I did not authorizes. $37 for an overdraft fee and a additional $19.95 when I tried to cancel my $15.95 subscription that still had 26 days left on it. Tony finally tells me that my account is a test account and that is why I was charged the $19.95 when I tried to cancel the $15.95. He said that there was no $19.95 plan on Credit sesame except on my account because mine was test account. (The same thing was on my friend's credit sesame account.) I got the $19.95 back. Tony refunded the original $15.95. Then this left the matter of the $25 and the $37 over draft fee. Finally Tony tells me the $25 was taken from my Bank account to fund my cash account. I did not authorize this transaction. Tony tells me that I had linked my bank account to my Credit Sesame cash account and initiated the transaction. (Another lie.)

I have a section on my bank account page that shows me what companies I have linked my bank account to and when I unlinked them. It clearly showed that I had unlinked my bank account 36 hours before I even opened the cash account. Later that day I sign into my Credit sesame account and see the $25 pending deposit into the cash account. I log on later that evening and my cash account was closed. (I did not authorize that either.) The $25 was gone. Later that evening the $25 was back in my bank account. I am still out of the $37 for the overdraft fee my bank charged me for the transaction. This company cost me $37 and I only had my account for 3 days. Tony told me a bunch of more lies. I recorded the entire conversation. I have still not been refunded for the $37 overdraft fee I had to pay. Tony blamed me for the $19.95 transaction and the $25 transaction. Do not do business with this company. They lie and try to steal from you.